Iran's interior minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has announced that Ahmadi Moghadam was reinstated by order of Khamenei who is Iran's commander-in-chief, the country's Fars news agency reported on May 22.

Rahmani Fazli has congratulated the police chief "due to Khamenei's trust in him."

Ahmadi Moghadam was appointed as police force commander in 2005. He previously served as the commander of Basij - a conservative volunteer militia that is a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in Tehran.

In June 2011, the United States announced sanctions against Ahmadi Moghadam over human rights abuses in Iran since the country's disputed 2009 presidential election.

The US Treasury Department said that the sanctions apply to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the Basij militia, Iran's police forces and its commander Ahmadi Moghadam.